Thursday, June 25, 2015

Salvage the Page - Ketchup and Mustard

These little faces mean the world to me. (Even the somewhat more mature face of their older brother at age 19, is still a "little" face to me and indeed still means the world to me.) These little faces also speak volumes....right now they are screaming summer. Ketchup and mustard costumes in place, my little grandies are ready to run a race against the Milwaukee Brewer sausages.

I find myself often questioning where this complete and utter joy that children are so easily and quickly able to manifest goes as we become adults. We are so mired down in the everyday details of one thing or another that must be done, the time limits and requirements imposed on us by work, government, and even family members.

Working with paper and photos, paint and ink, releases me from that feeling of being mired down. Add in the bonus of working with photos of these happy little faces and there is the double win of creating something that they will have in years to come.

Now onto page details...

Since I am working within my stash (still) I pulled whatever red and yellow print papers together I had in my tote and started with the photos, layering rectangles and slivers of papers till there were bits of reds and yellows peeking out all the way around. The background seemed a bit stark white at this point, so I added a bit of yellow using a stencil and ink.

Next was to create a border using small rectangles of the red and yellow prints adhering them at all four sides.

Now the page seemed to be too busy for my taste. What to do, what to do? Now I am feeling a bit mired down with the details and the time already spent on the page. so. Now trying to salvage the work I had already down (and not waste the paper). Thinking to self, if there is too much going on... remove something. OK, let's try trimming down the layers under the photos. Better. Then trimmed down the edges of the page itself, making the border narrower and adhered the whole thing on another white (back side of another paper I was not likely to use) sheet. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! (Why do people say that!?)

I may not be running a race against folks dressed up as various types of sausages. But working with ink, paper, and photos shouldn't make me feel mired down, or restricted. And by focusing on what was possible, I got where I wanted to be.

Hmmmm, not exactly the wild joy of the very young, but I'm working on it.